materialism kills

It is clear through the story that Akaky is a civil servant, whose job is to copy.  "Outside this copying nothing seemed to exist for him" (237). He basically lives a life of emptiness. He does not care for money, food, clothes, social life, women, love, friendships, hygiene or anything except for copying.  Once Akaky buys the overcoat, it seems as if he is finally excited about something. It seems like something other than copying has value in his life. The day he bought the overcoat was  "one of the greatest days in Akaky's life " (251).  At this point of the story I felt like he finally seemed human. He valued something and walked around smiling and feeling happy. At work everyone congratulated him and someone even offered to throw a party for him. All this positive attention comes into his life just because of a new overcoat. Now what this overcoat really is, is just a piece of clothing that should not have any actual significant value other than keeping you warm. The amount of happiness and pleasure it gave to Akaky is more than normal.  A paradox exists in that that same overcoat that finally changed Akaky's life just a little bit for the better, actually led him to his death.  The overcoat can be representing materialism and how sometimes people put so much importance on materialistic things that don't have any true value in life or reality.  I mean as everyone said in class the most important thing was that he was content with his life that consisted of nothing except for copying. I think Gogol is trying to emphasize through this story that the important things in life are the things you do and if you are happy doing them.  Life is too short to waste time and energy on materialistic things that can be stolen or taken away. The pleasure that Akaky felt while copying could never be taken away from him. When he got the new overcoat the narrator says "He enjoyed his dinner immensely and did no copying at all afterwards, not one document did he copy, but just indulged himself a little by lying down on his bed until dusk" (253).  For the first time we read that he doesn't care to copy during his leisure time. He abandons the real significant thing in his life for something material and eventually dies because of it.